Constructed of solid sustainable willow wood and top quality leather, the Banca Familiar, or Family Bench, is a true conversation piece. Designed by Spanish designer Valentin Garal for Mexican company Le-Porc Shop, the piece combines a family style bench with a cage for parakeets. The handcrafted furniture shop will be selling the benches at their locations in Mexico.

Garal designed Banca Familiar as a piece to encourage social interaction. Intended to be placed in locations that lack character or foot traffic, it is hoped that the bench will bring life to empty corners, drawing in passersby with the colorful parakeets that live within it.

The sturdy bench itself has two leather seat pads for comfortable lounging, yet extends further to accommodate more than two people. The quirky attached cage has two tiers of perches for the inhabiting birds, and a latched door on the exterior. The presence of the birds was meant to further encourage visiting the public spaces in which they are placed, as they require feeding and care.

Garal created Banca Familiar as an intriguing and out of the ordinary piece that would draw the attention of passersby, encouraging meeting, discussion and gathering, with the hopes that strangers may sit down and start a conversation about the oddity that it is, and leave as friends.